The Devotee

This one is in tribute to a friend of mine, as he probably shares the most intimate relationship with God. If I ever question the existence of God, his relationship with the almighty puts any doubt to a serious test. There are a few more people who help me appreciate of God, but not quite like him.

He never needs a reminder to say his prayers and does not pray only when in need, but even when life is good.
He will say grace before every meal, be it a road side sandwich, a home cooked meal, or a dinner at a 5 star, and has never forced me to be a part of it, but every time he says his grace, I wait for him to finish.
He never prays out loud, or makes a show of his devotion.  If he interrupts a conversation to take a moment of silence, he will still apologise to a fellow human being if he may have been rude.
Never has he questioned God’s judgment, and probably never will.
At the most harsh of times, he will thank all his blessings but he never counts them or says how limited they might be.

Luke Dewars, I believe God has a plan for you, because you daily whispers are too loud for the almighty to ignore

A Random Introduction

My folks named me “Raghav Mandava” and with no intention to gloat, I love my name, and it has its twisted variants but none the less. Although my parents are “Gupta” and mums maiden name was “Bhargava”, somehow I’m a Mandava. The reason I am named so because mom just did not like the idea of me growing up to be a ‘Gupta’ and hence eventually be called ‘Guptaji’. With all due respect, thank the heavens for her strong dislike to her own surname.

My brother and I were named Mandava because somewhere, somehow we are descendants of the people who are well in fact from Mandawa (yes, mother dear got the spelling wrong).

However, Mandava gained its popularity in college… when a batch mate named Raghav Mohan was in the same dramatic society as me, and since even calling me “RM” was taken out of the way it eventually became norm to call me by my last name. Till this date, I thank the likes of Sakshama, Sahil and Rajeev for doing that, because today I realise the biggest importance of my name… its uniqueness. I’m yet to come across another Raghav Mandava and when people need to add me on facebook it gives me great pleasure in saying “I’m one of a kind”

This blog however, is going to be about everything, which would also imply it would be about nothing. I could randomly come up here and write a one liner or a full page about the injustice done to me at a fancy restaurant or something about a friend or an acquaintance. Here you can also get updates about my shows, how some of them went down. As a struggling stand up comic, I need all the help and support I can get.

The only thing is I hope I can keep it together and maintain this unlike the last one, and also hope that it will be a more interesting read

Well, here’s hoping.